Maddow: I Wasn't Calling on Anderson Cooper to Come Out

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says that she was not calling on Anderson Cooper to come out of the closet in an interview with a British newspaper.

Maddow, herself an out lesbian, told British newspaper the Guardian that high profile GLBT personalities "have a responsibility" to own up to the full truth of who they are.

The comment was made in a paragraph that made a pointed--but nameless--reference that some assume was aimed at CNN host Anderson Cooper.

"Does she feel frustration towards an equally well-known news presenter who is widely assumed to be gay but has never come out?" the Guardian piece asked. "For the first time, Maddow pauses: 'I'm sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they're doing what they're doing, but I do think that if you're gay you have a responsibility to come out,' she says carefully."

"In a Tuesday post titled Anchors Away, Maddow denied reports that she was hinting that Cooper should come out of the closet," reported On Top Magazine on April 27.

"Regarding The Guardian interview that's getting a lot of pickup today," Maddow wrote in the April 25 posting at The Maddow Blog, "in that interview, I wasn't asked about Anderson Cooper, I didn't say anything about him, he literally was never discussed during the interview at all--even implicitly."

Maddow acknowledged that the Guardian's text could be construed to refer to Cooper, but stated flatly that she had not commented on Cooper specifically. Maddow also added that had she intended to reference Cooper, she would have done so bluntly, saying that one "wouldn't have to read between the lines if that's what I was trying to do."

Maddow also wrote that when it comes to GLBTs publicly disclosing their sexual orientation, she has three main concerns.

"Gay people--generally speaking--have a responsibility to our own community and to future generations of gay people to come out, if and when we feel that we can," Maddow wrote. "We should all get to decide for ourselves the 'if and when we feel that we can' part of that."

Third, Maddow added. "Closeted people should reasonably expect to be outed by other gay people if (and only if) they prey on the gay community in public, but are secretly gay themselves."

On Top Magazine noted that gay publication Out treats Cooper as if he has publicly disclosed his sexual orientation as being gay. The article also noted that Cooper has neither confirmed nor denied rumors that he is gay.

Tabloid reports last year said that Cooper and another man, Benjamin Maisani, had bought and renovated an old firehouse in New York's West Village. Tabloid stories also claim that the pair was planning to adopt a Haitian orphan. Cooper was among those journalists who reported from Haiti in the direct aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

Cooper himself denied the latter rumor. A Feb. 4, 2010, tweet read, "while the plight of children in Haiti has touched us all, stories about me adopting a baby are completely false."

As recently as Jan. 27 of this year, Maisani was described in the Village Voice as being Cooper's "boyfriend."

"CNN's charismatic Anderson Cooper and his boyfriend, club owner Ben Maisani, turned up at the gayest party in town on Wednesday night," Michael Musto blogged at the Village Voice site. "It was gay club promoter Josh Wood's birthday bash in a suite at the Chelsea Hotel," the article added.

The Guardian article praised Maddow's "mix of intelligence, empathy and arch humor," and noted that on her program, Maddow "focuse(s) on stories that both affect people and require hard-nosed reporting, such as how the Republican party is trying to make it harder for people to register to vote in the upcoming election, and why (hint: 68% of first time voters in the last election voted for Barack Obama.)"